February 22nd, Year 23 under the Four Princesses

'It never seems to be enough.

Everypony has been telling me repeatedly not to dwell on the mistakes, but how am I supposed to not think about them when I have nothing to replace those thoughts with? Things haven't got much better after what happened with Nebula, despite how often Gaia keeps saying that nopony can hold a training accident against me. Easy for her to say, she'd likely seen plenty of real combat, this was the first time I ever I fired my magic in anger and it damn near killed somepony. Some ponies just aren't able to come to terms with something like that on the first try. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for Cipher.

He just keeps pushing me harder and harder, citing a need to 'keep up with the best of the best'. Well I'm trying, for Celestia's sake I'm trying! Every day seems to end with being patched up by Healing Wave after a fresh round of harsh training and that one occasion they put me under observation in the infirmary after nearly managing to dislocate a hind leg. I'm still trying though, I'm succeeding, I mean I managed to fight Water Flare to a tie yesterday. Is that not enough? Would it kill you to show even a tiny bit of approval every time I nearly drop from exhaustion keeping up with your demands?! Sorry Wave, but at this rate there wont be any soul left to lose if I-'

"Hey, you want the report or not?"

A nudge to his side snapped Aurora from his brooding and he looked up at the pony responsible. Bulwark on his left and a rather sullen looking Rainbow Dash on his right, her retracting hoof indicating she was the one responsible.

Aurora shook his head slightly and focused again, slightly ashamed at how he'd zoned out in the middle of a tactical exercise. In this case, he was settled at a table containing several edited history books and a grid board based on what looked like an Ogres and Oubliettes set, though given the layout of the board's environment and the fact the figures on it were only ponies and yaks, he recognised it as based on the Battle of Prancer Lake, an engagement during the Contact War over two thousand years ago. The books and screen set up on the other side of the table meant that his information was limited to the same as General Mako had to work with at the time. Rainbow and Bulwark, acting as his captains, were the ones with information on what was happening on the frontline.

"Right, sorry, status report?" He asked, not wanting to waste anymore time. These exercises were handled in real time and Water Flare was on the other side of the room, likely going through the same thing with Flash Sentry and Healing Wave right now. Plus he was working at a slight disadvantage, Rainbow had been struggling for the last few days after learning her surrogate sister had been hospitalised. She wasn't letting it get in the way of the task at hoof though, he couldn't either.

"Well the earth pony line has blunted the enemy charge with lower than expected losses," Bulwark started, continuing as Aurora took the pieces representing battalions and adjusted them as necessary. "However, aerial units have detected the approach of several more enemy units, roughly half the size of the main force. If they link up, they'll almost certainly be able to break through."

"Okay...Do we have a grid on them?" Aurora asked with a small sigh.

"Currently in grids P-Fourteen and fifteen to Q-Thirteen." Rainbow confirmed.

"Rainbow, pull all pegasus units to the air of grid S-Twelve and spread the front line slightly. We can't afford any flanking breakthroughs," Aurora ordered, adjusting his board as she went to see those orders were done. "Bulwark, what's the status on the unicorns?"

"They've arrived at grid T-Sixteen. The hill has given them a full overlook of the battlefield, currently level with the frontline."

"Good," Aurora grinned slightly, the hill had originally allowed him to form a chokepoint between it and the lake, now it was time for its second purpose. "Group them together and concentrate their magic into full strikes on grid R-Thirteen through fifteen."

"Aurora, with respect, is that even a real tactic?"

"The artillery strike. Devised by Sergeant Artillery and first used by Captain Keynote during the First Battle of Vanhoover in 481 TC, a good eight years before this," He replied, bringing up a book on military techniques during the era and showing him the relevant page. "Right now, it'll either cut off the two forces from each other or hit their backup, I'll need an update once you know which."

As Bulwark headed back behind the screen to the central board where the captains on both sides were directly controlling the engagement, Aurora allowed himself to smile. One advantage of not having too many friends back home was it gave him time to read and history had always fascinated him. A side result of all the military documents he had studied was that strategy had become his non-magical forte, at least when his head was in the game. That said, he found it calming and tended to feel at his best during these exercises. His horn lit up as he decided to check how everypony was feeling, since it would be foolish not to make use of an advantage like that.

Across the room, he could sense uncertainty and concern coming from Flare, likely trying to think of how to salvage the situation. Flash was making use of his military guile, remaining calm, while Wave was a mess of mounting frustration. Off to one side in the center, Cipher remained neutral, managing the random factors that could affect the flow of battle. Bulwark was too busy updating the main board to have anything beyond his usual drive, though Rainbow had a glimmer of satisfaction coming through the dejection within her as she stepped back to update him. Aurora let his magic fade and relaxed, waiting to see which way this was going to go.

"Report, the yaks second line was caught up by our unicorn's attacks. We nailed a lot of them and the remainder have been stopped in their tracks!" She declared, her boundless enthusiasm for a challenge surfacing again. Considering that historically this battle had been a straight defeat for ponykind, Aurora couldn't help but share the feeling.

"Good work captain, cease striking with the unicorns but keep them in place to recover, send all pegasi at the disorientated line and then hit the main force from behind once they rout. Oh and tighten up the earth pony lines, we don't need undue casualties now."

He'd done all he needed to do, all that was left was to update his pieces and wait until Cipher decided enough was enough. Several minutes later he made the call that victory had gone to Aurora's team. Aurora got up and stretched, finally free to move from his table, satisfied in his work as he trotted round to the main table and shook hooves with Flare. The matchup had been a little unfair in terms of ability but so was warfare in general, all the same he hoped for a chance to face either Flash or Cipher in this exercise someday.

"Sixty nine percent casualties for the ponies, eighty two for the yaks. A lot to think about for both sides." Cipher started. The rest of his words were lost on Aurora, who immediately looked at the main table to see the overall battlefield for the first time. How had he been so careless as to not ask for damage reports on his side? It had shown too, his earth pony line had held but only by the skin of their teeth. It was part of his role to have as much information as possible and the captains were only supposed to tell him of losses if a unit had broken or been destroyed. He simply shook his head slightly, that familiar frustration starting to rear its ugly head inside him again.

"Private, were you listening?"

"Oh err," He looked back round quickly at Cipher's words, everypony else looking at him as well. "...No, sir."

"Hmmm," Cipher replied simply, his expression remaining stoic as he looked up at the clock over the door. "Alright everypony, we're getting our first look at our gear today. Everything's in place at the Institute already, I want to see everypony at the main lobby there in twenty minutes. Dismissed."

As the rest of the team filed out, Aurora hung back for a few moments, clenching his eyes shut and taking deep breaths to try and keep himself from boiling over again. He'd just finished an exercise at the top, a rare occurrence at the best of times and not even so much as a 'well done'. He didn't understand why, especially when Cipher had been so supportive of him in the past. For now, he managed to condense his feelings into a frown and followed the others out. He just had to try harder, give them a real reason to approve...Assuming he could even come close to this performance in any other area. His expression dropped again at that realisation, the anger of before giving way to crushing realisation.

'It never will be enough.'

Cipher took a moment to compose himself as he arrived at the Canterlot Institute of Development, the heart of Equestria's research and development efforts for a better future. All built in shining white stone with gold accents that matched the rest of the more regal aspects of the city, this particular brainchild of Princess Twilight had already had already been credited with hundreds of advances in just about every field over the last twelve years. Unsurprisingly, this had also included working with the defence force, designing new armour and equipment to be used in the protection of their homeland. As he passed by the guards at the main gate, his thoughts wandered to his teammates.

He couldn't deny that he was proud of how every one of them was doing so far. The likes of Bulwark and Flash Sentry were almost as focused military stallions as he was, yet they were both doing their best to help the less adjusted ponies fit in with the higher demands of special forces work. Rainbow Dash was, well, doing exactly what he'd expected of her, relishing the challenge while making sure nopony was getting overwhelmed in any area, even through her current personal issues. This had proven invaluable for Water Flare, considering her psych report. He wouldn't have even considered taking her on without Rainbow, but now she was arguably the most driven pony he'd worked with in years. Healing Wave was still more antisocial than he would have liked but after finding some common ground with Aurora she was opening up at last and her fighting skills were now passable. Speaking of Aurora...

Cipher stopped just outside the main doors, hesitating as he thought about his seventh pony. Despite what background as a prince would have implied, he'd started strong, better than expected and still keeping pace with the others. He wasn't blind though, he could see the pressure was starting to get to the unicorn. It hadn't helped that he had decided to start being firmer right before what had happened with Gaia's team. It had seemed a necessity at the time. Having a mother like the Princess of Love would make any pony struggle to be confrontational, that needed to be worn away slightly if he was going to be able to fight like the others.

Yet trying to switch tactics now would likely confuse Aurora more than help him. Cipher made a decision on the spot, he couldn't ease up yet but he could help Aurora find other ways to vent, from the practical ways like therapy to more...carnal methods. Ponies had a lot of leeway in how they could de-stress themselves, within the boundaries of the law of course. Tomorrow he'd put time aside for that, today he had a meeting to focus on.

Pushing the doors open, he stepped into the spacious, yet surprisingly welcoming lobby of the Institute. The other members of Task Force Harmony were waiting off to one side, though before they could move to attention at his arrival he motioned for them to relax and follow him. He glanced up at the markers that directed to the other buildings in the complex and what they were working on, seeing what had changed since his last visit here. Everything still looked as it had been and he looked back down as he came to the front desk, manned by a lime green earth stallion that had perked up upon his arrival.

"Afternoon, Trail Tracker." Cipher said as he stopped at the desk. Trail promptly saluted in response.

"Greetings, colonel. You're all already cleared to head to special projects, the chiefs waiting for you there."

"Alright, thanks. Let's go everypony."

Cipher looked back at the others as they followed him deeper into the building. Although all of them were keeping relatively close, he noticed Aurora was lagging behind slightly, his hoofsteps more lethargic than usual. It wasn't enough to be worth drawing attention to right now, but it reinforced his thoughts from before and dulled his mood slightly. The next few minutes were silent as they passed through the main building into one of the secondary parts of the complex. The special projects building was slightly smaller than the other buildings around it and upon entering all they had to see was a hallway than ran ten feet to their right, at the other end of which was another doorway with a pony standing by it.

"Cipher! Welcome to the special branch." They said as he came in, the smile coming back to him as he recognised the voice. A pale yellow unicorn mare with bushy eyebrows, a reddish mane with a two toned purple streak done into a ponytail, deep purple eyes and cutie mark of a purple crescent moon with three stars. Though he was used to seeing her with thick glasses and a lab coat on, today she had done away with any clothing and the glasses had been replaced by a set of goggles that were strapped on behind her mane. It wasn't the kind of look expected from the chief director of the Institute.

"Hey, chief," He replied flatly, before chuckling and trotting up, giving her a good natured hug that she returned in kind. "Seriously though, how've you been, Moondancer? Not using the glasses today?"

"Well the goggles are prescription too, plus it's easier than constantly having to readjust my glasses during important work," Moondancer replied, looking over at the others. "I'd ask how you're doing but I can just look at this, your own private army."

"My team," He reaffirmed. "And we're all curious as to what you've been prepping for us. Princess Luna said she wanted to let you reveal it yourself when she told me."

"I'll have to thank her for that." She commented happily as she turned to the door and placed her hoof on the center, twisting it. Despite looking completely normal, he knew that there was a number of locks built into the door and it had been enchanted to hide them.

Cipher couldn't help but give a small smile at how perky Moondancer was, her attitude refreshing right now. Once the locks were undone she opened the door up and lead them into the next hallway, identically bland like the first one, seven or eight doors spread out along its length. Each one likely protected like the first had been with due to being top-secret, probably five ponies at most what projects lay behind them. Once they reached the second door on the left she stopped and unlocked it, the sequence she needed committed to memory. Everypony filed in and took in the sight before them while she closed the door behind them.

"Fillies and gentlecolts," Moondancer said as she finished that and stepped up in front of them. "Presenting, the Harmony-Class Special Armour Set, Mark One. But I tend to just call it the Spec Armour."

The room itself looked like a cross between a research lab and a workshop, though it was the item at the center of the room that caught everypony's attention. Stood fitted to a mannequin in the center of the room was their new armour. Compared to standard protection of the Royal Guard, which was typically made of painted steel plates and allowed the wearer to remain identifiable, this was mostly black and made of an unknown material with hundreds of smaller pieces expertly woven together to maintain flexibility despite covering the entire body, stopping at the bottom of the neck. The helmet was a more standard, solid piece of the same material, aside from the ears which also had the flexible design, along with a reflective visor over the eyes and a full mouthplate with a latch to unhook it on the left cheek. The left shoulder was the only piece with any colour, the winged, hilted horn emblem of the EDF engraved there.

"Huh, interesting." Healing Wave commented, an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"Not sure if it's what I thought it'd look like." Water Flare added.

"It looks kind of snug." Bulwark remarked, getting a humoured look from Cipher.

"Yes, well, this particular suit was modelled based on Sergeant Flare's measurements," Moondancer interjected, making Flare blush slightly considering how small it was. "Each of you will have custom made pieces of armour, but this is the most basic variant that has everything the others will."

"Well it looks and sounds good so far. What are the specifications?" Cipher asked, stepping forward and circling the mannequin.

"The body has three layers," Moondancer sounded more eager than before as she moved in to point out what she was talking about. "First is a cotton body glove for comfort and warmth that covers your body up to the top of the neck. Second is a rubber layer that covers the same area for insulation, coupled with a few enchantments for durability and flexibility. These two layers cover every part of the body, including the tail and in the case of Lieutenant Sentry and Captain Dash, the wings. It won't impair flight but it is a bit of a weak spot."

"Are you sure we can go all out in this?" Rainbow asked as she hovered over and studied the back pieces up close, more out of curiosity than actually questioning it. Unsurprisingly, Moondancer was more eager to explain than annoyed by the interruption.

"We consulted with some of Equestria's finest fliers to make sure every aspect of the wings could perform at maximum efficiency while covered up. You probably know one or two of them. But yes, we couldn't extend the third layer over the wings without seriously impairing mobility." This seemed to be enough and with a small glint of dawning recognition in her eyes, Rainbow nodded and backed off.

"Alright, so what's the third layer?"

"The third is composed of a thin layer of carbonado, very tough mineral and highly resistant to magic. Even this much can shrug off an attack by a regular unicorn with no more than a scratch. We mimicked a snake scale pattern to keep it flexible."

"We're lucky we can use this much now," Cipher explained. "We've had to rely on limited imports from the Mintoris Islands for years, until fresh deposits were found in the Crystal Mountains several years ago."

"Good thing Queen Cadance is willing to trade." Flash commented.

"Agreed, the uses we've found for it are incredible," Moondancer said as she continued her presentation. "Which brings me to the helmet. Aside from sporting armour three times thicker than the body, closer to the standard used by the guards, it also carries a few more surprises that can only be done with such a mineral. I could go into how we separated the magic that's now contained in here, but the short version is we managed to weave a number of communication spells into your helmets, contained by the carbonado, powered by your inherent magic with only a minimal drain on it and allowing you to talk to linked spells, like in the other helmets, at ranges of up to eighty feet. We're still working on integrating a method of disguising your voices into the mouthplates but I'm confident mark one point one will be ready for your first deployment."

"So...How are we going to be able to use our magic?" Aurora piped up from the back of the group, though he still sounded somewhat disinterested.

Though Moondancer went straight into a fresh explanation, something about different materials and more space around the horn to prevent magic impairment, Cipher wasn't really listening at this moment. His gaze was back at Aurora, unable to hide the sadness in his eyes. The younger stallion seemed to have been so relaxed during their earlier exercise, yet now he was looking like he didn't expect to be here tomorrow. That was the thing that tugged at the colonel's heart, he knew how to reach all of his teammates when they needed him, except for one. He needed to find what would help fix the kid. And soon.

Author's Note

Ever heard of Time Commanders? Wonderful show, though a lot harder to mimic without electricity.